This painting shows Sac and Fox warriors on the Great Plains, dancing in honor of a two-spirit woman.
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fc%2Fc5%2FCatlin_-_Dance_to_the_berdache.jpg&hash=f9412bd71b4afa2c80a6a1ade99fe05d5284ee68) (http://repo.lib.virginia.edu:18080/fedora/get/uva-lib:34698/uva-lib-bdef:100/getFullView)
Quote"Dance to the Berdashe is a very funny and amusing scene, which happens once a year or oftener, as they choose, when a feast is given to the 'Berdashe,' as he* is called in French ... who is a man* dressed in woman's clothes, as he* is known to be all his* life, and for extraordinary privileges which he* is known to possess, he* is driven to the most servile and degrading duties, which he* is not allowed to escape; and he* being the only one of the tribe submitting to this disgraceful degradation, is looked upon as medicine and sacred, and a feast is given to him* annually" (Letters and Notes, vol. 2, pp. 210-15, pl. 296). Sketched at the Sauk and Fox village in 1835.
*unfortunately, this was written before the white man learned how to use the right pronouns for trans people.
The point is that the two-spirit woman was "looked upon as medicine and sacred." Never forget that there have been times and places when we were honored and revered, instead of trashed and despised.
Nice post, Hypatia. Nice thoughts as well.
N~
Quote from: Hypatia on February 27, 2009, 02:51:26 PM
The point is that the two-spirit woman was "looked upon as medicine and sacred." Never forget that there have been times and places when we were honored and revered, instead of trashed and despised.
I await the return of these times!
Z